We are wrapping up episode 3, scene 3. We still have one more scene in episode 3 after this.

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You are Chiba Mamoru, seventeen years old, first year university student. Orphaned at a young age, you are plagued with strange dreams and visions, always centered about a beautiful woman trying to tell you something. They are usually accompanied by the absolute worst headache. You also have a bad habit of waking up at odd times, in a public place, dressed in a tuxedo. You must have some sort of amazing social life getting invited to the kind of parties that you wear a tux to, but you have absolutely no recollection of going to, or even being invited to a party.

You are also Tuxedo Kamen, infamous jewel thief and ally of magical girls. Potentially. The girl in white told you to recover the Silver Crystal, as it is the key to restoring you sealed memories. The lovely blonde girl, Sailor Moon, seems to also be after the Crystal. This competing interest may be the undoing of any potential alliance between the two of you.

However, neither personality is currently aware of the other. An annoying gap in the memories of the two personas inside your body.

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Rules are the same as always. Vote for your preferred option. Write-ins are always welcome, but may not always be used if they don't work. Write-ins that don't win, but had some popularity before the end of voting will affect the final result if I can make it work. External knowledge is allowed unless it becomes a problem.

>>28802As much as you'd like to fall asleep with this girl snuggling against you, there are other people watching. Plus, there might still be other youma around that you hadn't defeated. While thinking of a reason to just stay like that for a little longer, you also realize that sooner or later, Yuuno will end the spell that's keeping all the normal people in a separate place.

You roll a little to the left, and pull your cape out from under you. With that done, you sit up, still holding Sailor Moon close to you. Only then do you reluctantly release her and ask her to get up. Your head feels a little light, and you realize that your hat fell off. You spot it behind you. While reaching back to grab it. Sailor Moon quickly goes over to it and hands it to you. You thank her and put it on.

With your hat on and your blonde cuddlebug off of your lap, you're able to stand up. Your head starts to spin from the sudden change in altitude. You stumble a little and catch your balance. Sailor Moon, ever helpful, presses herself against your left side and wraps her right arm around you. Being a head and a half shorter than you, she probably wouldn't be able to stop you from falling if you lost consciousness, but you appreciate the gesture, in more ways than one.

"I guess we should head to the roof then." You say, looking at everyone. Your gaze stops at Cure White. Her gown is still tattered, and she's covering herself as best as she can with her hands.

Quick time voting interrupt.>Give your cape to White again.>Don't give her the cape.>Remind White that she could try detransforming to get out of her tattered uniform.

Anyways, we should hand off our cape again. The detransforming thing might work, but I think it's a breech of Mahou Shoujo etiquette to detransform right now? I'm not sure. It might also cause Yuuno's field to target her or something.

Hand the cape over. It's pretty much a complete breech of etiquette for her to dehenshin, and wouldn't it'd drop Nagisa out as well? Probably not a good idea to forcibly make them reveal their identities just this second.

>>28803I think the cape would make Cure White feel safer and like her modesty is preserved. Given Tuxie's a mahou-otoko, he should be able to put himself in White's position: He doesn't yet want to reveal his identity, so he shouldn't ask anyone else to do so if they don't wanna. It'd breach mahou-reihou. And like Shadow said, being a gentleman scores points. Remember how grateful Sailor Moon was for the cape?

After that, we need introductions and to ask the all-important query: "What is your quest?"

And then we need to be aware of a possible ambush. I still think everyone's been herded to the roof and it's not entirely a voluntary choice.

>>28805>>28813>>28814>>29085You make your way over to where the two Cures are standing while still letting Sailor Moon support you. You're still a little light-headed, but you don't need her support anymore. Nonetheless, you like the fact that the blonde girl is pressing herself up again you like that. You free your cape from being stuck between the two of you, and let it slowly settle back down. The cape covers Sailor Moon, and your mind is full of things that you'd love to do to the girl while under the privacy of your cape.

Like before, you unbutton your cape and slide it off. In a smooth motion, you place it on Cure White's shoulders. She doesn't need your prompting to hold the cape in place while you fish out the gold chain to fasten it in place. Interestingly, Cure White doesn't have the cape closed tightly around her like she did previously. You glance down and confirm, if you were a little farther away, you'd be able to see her panties. Either she's teasing you, or you've awoken a bit of an exhibitionist streak in the girl. The lack of any teasing smirk on her face makes you think it's the latter. "There we go." You state, as you fasten the chain back onto the cape. "I took it back a little too soon, but you can hold onto it for a little while longer."

With that task out of the way, you proclaim, "To the roof! And keep an eye out for any ambushes.

Sailor Moon at your side, you lead the way up the stairs. The third floor is clear. The fourth floor is clear. After the fourth floor, the stairs have a less polished look to them. Going up one more flight, you reach a door. Cautiously, you open the door while looking to see if there's any danger. Like the two floors below, the roof is clear. "Come on up. You call out behind you. The coast is clear."

The rest of the girls, plus Yuuno and Luna, and join you on the roof. Yuuno claps his hands together and the grayscale bubble that you've been in shrinks until all of your are back out in the sunlight.

With everyone standing in more or less of a circle, you say, "Since I think we're all fighting for good, let's introduce ourselves. We'll probably be fighting together more, so we should get to know each other more. I'll go first…"

Quick time voting interrupt.>Do you mention that your quest is the silver crystal?

>>29143I actually can't think of any reason why we shouldn't, aside from a misplaced desire to follow canon. Or maybe some in-character trust issues? I don't know. Either way, I don't see any issues with being upfront with the girls.

>>29145>>29149Hmm, I dunno. Luna pretty much still fully falls in the Distrusts Us category, so telling her that we're looking for the same thing she is will probably totally cement us in her mind as either competition or an enemy sleeper agent. I don't really have any good reasons why we shouldn't besides that, mind you, so I don't see a reason not to mention it.

The amnesia thing is a different matter altogether, but not for the reason you might think. Us being upfront about our goal, we don't really have to explain. In fact, if Luna were to press us on why we want the crystal, we could spin it around on her and indirectly force her to admit her own motivations, dodging the question entirely for the time being. Amnesia, though? That's a trump card to hold on to for now simply because it makes us Mysterious. So far, we've done a remarkable job of looking like we have a flying fucking clue what we're doing when in fact we've just been winging it. And one of the principle rules of winging it is, unless your character is notorious for winging it, don't admit you're winging it. So we look a lot more like we know what we're doing, and later on we can admit we have amnesia when it's… well, let's just say when it's more convenient to say so and gain some sympathy points. That's my thought on the matter, anyway.

>>29179>Can I just say that I find the opening pic ironic when we haven't taken anyone's virginity yet? XDYes, but I liked the image so much that I had to use it.

>Be upfront about the goal. Don't mention the amnesia.

"I am Tuxedo Kamen," You tell the group. You've already introduced yourself to most of the girls, but there's no harm in repeating yourself. You add, "Ally of those who fight for justice. However, my goal is to find the Silver Crystal," You see Luna visibly tense up in the way only a cat can as you mention the Silver Crystal, "to help me find some answers. I'd be honored if any of you might be able to help me." You point to Sailor Moon at your side to indicate that she should go next.

"I'm Sailor Moon." The blonde girl states. "Luna gave me this brooch," She points to the small bit of jewelry at the center of her ribbon, "And made me say some strange words, then I transformed in Sailor Moon. Now she says I need to find the Moon Crystal and the Silver Princess."

Luna grumbles, "It's the Moon Princess and the Silver Crystal."

Sailor Moon moon gasps in surprise, "Then you can help us find it, Tuxedo Kamen!"

"Yeah." You reply halfheartedly. Luna glares at you, and you both know you're thinking the same thing. Even if you cooperate now, sooner or later, you will have to fight over the Crystal.

Cure Black breaks the tension with her introduction, "I'm Misu- er… Cure Black." She points to the bluenette next to her wearing your cape, "White and I got roped into helping these two get back the Prism Stones from the…"

"From the Dark Zone." White chimes in.

"Right, the Dark Zone. Oh, and these two are Mepple and Mipple." The Cures pull out they're phones and flip them open, revealing the two oversized stuffed animal heads.

"Hello-mepo!""Hello-mipo!"

"We also say some embarrassing things when we transform." Cure White adds, trying to build a connection to Sailor Moon

Everyone's gaze continues clockwise and lands on Sailor Mercury. She appears to wilt under the scrutiny, but after a few moments, she gathers her courage and says, "I'm Sailor Mercury. I'm very new to this." Mumbling she adds, "My transformation is also embarrassing."

Next is the ferret. "I'm Yuuno. I'm an archeologist. My clan found some Lost Logia, artifacts of a long dead race. We called them the jewel seeds. We sent them off to the Space Time Administration Bureau on Midchilda for safe keeping, but the spaceship carrying them was destroyed in an accident, and the jewel seeds fell to Earth. I came to recover them, but I was attacked and injured. I needed Nanoha's help." He looks up the girl beside him.

"I'm Takamachi Nanoha." She says, "I'm in third grade, and I don't have a secret name. Raising Heart has a long password, but it's not that embarrassing. Yuuno gave me Raising Heart and we've been collecting Jewel Seeds. This was the second one we've found. Umm… I think that's everything."

You're about to say something, but you spot something moving a few buildings over. It's hard to make out as the twilight is fading to complete darkness. "What's that?" You ask, pointing. Something is towering above a building a few blocks away.

Everyone turns to look. "Is it some kind of Kaiju?" Cure Black asks.

Sailor Moon squeaks and presses herself against your side, "A kaiju? You mean like Godzilla!?" You instinctively squeeze her with the arm that you have wrapped around her. If she's going to do you the favor of pressing her breasts against your side, the least you can do is offer that gesture of protection while you fantasize of her breasts being full of milk.

"It's not heading for Tokyo Tower, so it can't be Godzilla." Cure White quips.

You hear giggling coming from straight ahead of you. Mercury's back is turned to you so she can look at the giant something or other in the distance, but you can see shoulders and back moving in a way that gives her away as the source of the giggling."

"Ami! You laughed!" Sailor Moon calls out. She's torn on whether to go hug the bluenette for coming out of her shell, or to stick to claiming you. She decides to continue pressing herself against your side, but looking down, you see a big grin on the blonde girl's face.

Sailor Mercury touches her earring, and you can see a bit of her visor as it appears. "There's something there." She says in a much more relaxed voice than when she was guiding your strikes earlier. "But it's not giving off any heat, or any mechanical signatures. It's five blocks away. At the park near the shopping center. We should go investigate."

Sailor Moon practically jumps out of her skin and exclaims, "Investigate! I need to go to the Chanela store and free Shingo!"

Cure Black joins in, "White! We need to go there too. That's the place with those animals I was telling you about that smell really nice hypnotized me."

"Right."

"Um, Sailor Mercury." Nanoha says, "Yuuno and I will go with you to find out what that is, to make up for attacking you earlier."

"I already forgave you for that. But thank you. I appreciate it."

Anything you want to add or ask before the group splits?>Write-in. [what?]

Which group do you go with?>Go with Sailor Moon and investigate these Chanela.>Go with Sailor Mercury and investigate the Kaiju.>Go back to Sendai Hill where you woke up and see if you can find any traces of that evil presence you sensed earlier.>Go home.>Go somewhere else. [write-in]

Ah, to be strategic, or to be romantic, that is the question. And even then not a simple one.

The Cures are better at battling but are getting worn down, still I think that they with Moon would be able to handle themselves better than the less offensive and less experienced Nanoha and Mercury.

But, if we don't go with Moon, do we lose progress with her, or can we get brownie points by expressing our confidence in her and that we want to make sure everyone is safe.

Not to mention the fact that we're getting worn down ourselves and we may have to consider taking back our cape to restore our defensive capabilities.

So many factors, how is a Mascot supposed to make a decision? We're supposed to know what to do most of the time, darn it!

Okay, let us quip that a hero's work is never done, and arrange to meet up again at another time and place. Apologize to White and ask for our cape back (especially since we don't know what the situation is with our stuff returning to us). Then let's accompany Mercury and Nanoha.

>>29559That fucking Tokyo Tower crack, oh my god. The fact that Ami laughed at it is even better.

This is pretty much just a chance to earn some points with whichever girls we go with, and while I'd like to resolve the Chanela issue given our previous run-in with the place, I think Moon and the Cures have it covered. Meanwhile, we're at about Rank 1 at best on the Social Link scale with Mercury and Nanoha both, so it's time we start working on that. I can go either way about the cape, but otherwise I agree with Shadow's idea.

"A hero's work is never done." You lament. "Let us meet again next time." You pat Sailor Moon's head and say, "I'm confident you, Black, and White will be able to handle yourselves. Mercury and Nanoha may need my help more." Moving your gaze over, you add, "Although White, unfortunately, I need to ask for my cape back."

"Oh. OK." Cure White replies, and starts fiddling with the chain holding the cape in place.

You give Moon a parting squeeze and step over to her. As you undo the chain and put it back in your pocket, you reassure her, "Don't worry. Both Yuuno and I are going with the other team, so you don't need to worry about any guys looking at your torn uniform." Of course, you know that she's just as self-conscious about Cure Black seeing her like that, but you're banking on her not announcing her lesbian crush on her partner to everyone.

While you're unwrapping the cape from her, you lean down and whisper, "Thank you for the show earlier." Keeping true to the spirit of your words, you turn away from Cure White so everyone can see that you're being a gentleman and not peeking. Yuuno likewise turns around while you're securing your cape to the buttons on your jacket.

Satisfied that your outfit is complete, you say, "I'm sure fate will bring up back together soon. Until we meet again." You take a running start and leap across to the roof of the building across the street. Mid-air, you hear Raising Heart and Yuuno call out two spells, Flier Fin and Floater Field respectively. Sticking your landing, you turn around and see what's happening. Nanoha boots have small wings coming out of them like Hermes's sandals and she's flying across the gap. Yuuno has created a series of platforms out of the same spell that he used to break his fall in the classroom where you first met. He and Sailor Mercury are running along them as if they formed a bridge.

Strangely, your sensing powers are still fogged up from the warm glow you've come to associate with Sailor Moon being nearby. Since you're faster than Mercury, you stop for a moment. Ostensibly to let Yuuno and Mercury catch up, but in actual fact to focus on your connection to Sailor Moon. Sure enough, she's coming closer as well. Sailor Mercury did say that the giant monster you're heading towards was near a shopping center. Perhaps the store with the chanela is nearby. Maybe all of you didn't need to split up, or at least not yet.

Reaching the last building before the park, you see the beast. It looks like an overgrown salmon colored plush toy. It's chasing after two girls. You quickly realize it's Sakura and Tomoyo. The two split up, and the giant monster chases after Sakura.

Nanoha had circled around to wait for the three of you, but now she's flying as fast as she can to help the girl. You likewise jump as far towards them as you can.

In the air, you see the monster corner Sakura at the penguin slide and step on her.

>>29648You curse your timing. If you'd gotten here only a few moments earlier, you could have saved Sakura from what you can only assume is a very gruesome death. Landing on park path surrounded by tree, you sprint towards the play area, dodging the stuffed animals scattered around the path.

Reaching the play area, you see the pink monster chasing after Nanoha. To your great relief, you spot Sakura and Kero sitting on the ground next to the penguin slide with shocked expressions on their faces. You slide to a halt in the sand next to them and ask, "Are you two alright? I thought I saw that thing step on you."

"It did." Sakura answers. "But it didn't hurt at all."

"Watch out!" Kero yells and points behind you.

"What…" You turn around and get hit in the face by a stuffed animal. "Oh. That's why it didn't hurt."

Nanoha is nearby flying around distracting the pink monster. You, Sakura, and Kero are by the penguin slide. Yuuno and Mercury have just entered the open area of the park.

How do you want to deal with this "threat?">Have everyone fire everything they have at it.>Try to knock it over. [how?]>Retreat, it's not posing a threat to anyone.>Write-in [what?]

>>29649I think I've got an idea for knocking it over, but it depends on how Chain Bind works. Does it just lock people down, or could Yuuno potentially channel his inner Rico Rodriguez and tether the kaiju plushie to something and reel it in?

Hmm… I'm leaning towards tripping it up, especially since it won't do much damage, but how…? I have half an idea of Mercury using water to make it slip, or maybe make mud to get it stuck, while Sakura uses Windy and Nanoha help push it over. Not sure though… Little help here?

>>29655Our cane can probably help too, since if it stepped on Sakura and Kero and did zero damage, that means it doesn't have any weight behind it. We could probably catch one of the feet at an angle as it's stepping down and extendo-rod into it to help throw it off balance. Chain Bind being able to act like a zip-tether would help, but we've got options for knocking it over.

>>29649First we ask Sakura if this is another one of her cards, The we should try to knock it over. It's stubby little arms will make it hard for it to get back up.

The only method that might work that I an think of is to try to attack it's legs while it's in mid-step. Yuuno should chain bind the foot that's mid step as it's coming down, then we should try to use our extendo staff on the back of the knee of the other leg with the help of Nanoha while Mercury tries to undermine it's footing.

Neal:Ask if it's a card, then knock it over. Also, ask who the stuffed animals belong to. No fire.

Femanon:Fire! Fire! Burn! Burn! Then trip it.

With things slightly calmed down, you take a good look at Sakura. She's wearing a simple dark blue dress with white trim, long white sleeves, and a white flower on her breast. She's also wearing a matching pair of dark blue slip=on flats. Her hair is tied up in two small pigtails and her hairties are adorned with two light blue flowers. "Do these stuffed animals belong to somebody, and is this one of your Clow Cards." You inquire.

"Yes. It's a clow card. It's small and looks like a stuffed animal, but it stole all the stuffed animals from Maki's store and turned into that!" Sakura answers.

"Oh, then it'd be a bad idea to try setting it on fire."

"Don't do that!" Sakura yells at you.

"Don't worry, don't worry." You try calming her down, and notice that Yuuno and Mercury have reached you. Taking a moment, you introduce everyone, "Sakura, Kero, this is Yuuno and Sailor Mercury. Yuuno, Mercury, Sakura and Kero." You quickly think of a plan, "Yuuno, use chain bind to knock that thing over. Once it's on the ground, we'll have more options to seal it."

"Right." The ferret nods and scampers off.

You feel a vague sensation, like a whisper brushing your ear. You look around, but you don't see anything nearby. Looking back at the action, Nanoha is leading the oversized plush toy towards Yuuno. She then sharply peels away and Yuuno calls out, "Chain Anchor!" Four chains made of magical energy emerge from a magic circle floating in front of the ferret. They shoot out towards the kaiju and wrap around its arms and legs. Yuuno pulls back on the chains, but instead of pulling down the not particularly monstrous monster, the chains pull back four regular sized stuffed animals.

"Is that not one giant stuffed animal?" You ask.

"Nuh-uh." Sakura responds, shaking her head. "The Clow Card is as big as a stuffed animal, but it gathered up all the stuffed animals from Maki's store and then it turned into that!"

"Then I've got another idea. Sakura, fly over to Nanoha and the two of you lead it between those two lampposts. Mercury, we'll trip it up with my cane."

The girls nod their assent, and Sakura pulls out a small talisman, "The key which hides powers of the Dark! Show your true form before me! I, Sakura, command you under our contract! RELEASE!" A yellow magic circle appears below Sakura's feet and her talisman grows to its full size as the beaked staff that you've seen her with before. Sakura pulls out a card and hits it with the beak of her staff, "FLY!" The staff grows a large pair of wings from the top, and the young brunette sits on it and flies off, like a witch on a broomstick.

>>29838You watch her fly away, taking a quick peek up her dress as she does so. Turning to Mercury, you say, "Let's go." You jog across the sand pit to reach the light posts that you had indicated earlier. Mercury stands by one, and you stand by the other. While Sakura and Nanoha are trying to get the plush kaiju to turn around and head towards the two of you, you focus your magic into your cane and get a good feel for how much magical energy you need flowing into it to get it to the length that you want. Confident that you know the right rate, you stop and let the cane retract; your magical reserves are still low, and there's no need to waste them while you wait. You tell Mercury, "When it's close, I'll extend my cane. Hold it over your head against the lamp post and we'll try to make that thing trip.

You look back towards the two girls. Nanoha and Sakura are having and easy time flitting in and out of range of the plush toy and dodging it's attacks. Once they have it lined up in the right direction, the Nanoha and Sakura lead it towards you and Mercury. Nanoha is pulling off more acrobatics, but it makes sense seeing that Sakura has to be careful not to fall off of her winged staff.

Once they're close, you start the measured flow of magic into your cane and extend it past Sailor Mercury and the lamp post. Waiting for the monster to get closer, you order, "Now!" You hoist your end of the cane as high as you can. A little later, the bluenette picks up the other end and likewise holds it over her head. Moments later, the stuffed animal monster trips over your cane. It seems to fall over in slow motion, but it's just an illusion because of how big it is. When it hits the ground, its body explodes in a cloud of stuffed animals that rain down in the park.

"Success!" You call out and retract your cane. You run over to the pile of stuffed animals to try to find the culprit. Sailor Mercury, Yuuno, and Kero run (and fly in Kero's case) to the pile of toys as well while Nanoha and Sakura loop around and fly towards the pile, looking at it from above.

>>29839A pink streak flies out of the pile and lands a short distance away. It's like a mini version of the giant plush monster that had been "terrorizing" the park. It jumps around with incredible speed, and Sakura goes into a dive to try to chase after it.

How do you help Sakura capture this creature?>Set a trap. [what kind?]>Chase after it as a group.>Try to surround it.>Shoot at it with ranged attacks until it stops moving around so much.>Leave this to everyone else, and go take a look how the other team is doing.>This is a waste of time. Go home.

Unless anyone has any particularly better ideas, I'm just gonna toss out the idea of getting everyone to try and herd it into another Chain Bind field and then lock it down. I'm really glad that spell is as OP as it is because it helps out so much for this sort of thing.

>>29851Well, this took almost a month. Lost my muse, found it again, got very busy at work, made a minor scientific breakthrough, found a joy for gardening that I never had before, struggled to get edit a gif into a webm and add sound, and a bunch of other miscelaneous things that sucked up so much time. But, the update is finally here, so lets go.

"Let's herd it in, and have Yuuno chain bind it." You check everyone's faces for any disagreement. Seeing none, you add, "Break!"

You, Mercury, and Kero spread out to run around the pink plush toy, and Yuuno follows shortly behind the three of you. Sakura flies around to get to the other side of the creature while Nanoha brings her arms close to her body and dives at it.

You keep on eye on all the synchronized action happening, and you feel proud of the level of teamwork that's been established. That is the moment that everything starts to go wrong.

The purpose of Nanoha's dive was to restrict the plush creature's choice of actions so it could be more easily herded. Rather than try to dodge, the animated stuffed animal jumps straight at Nanoha. With Raising Heart at her side, the young girl has to roll to not get hit by the Clow Card. Rolling in a dive causes her to lose her orientation and control of her flight. Nanoha almost hits the ground, but pulls out of the dive at the last moment.

Meanwhile, the pink streak flies through the air and collides with Kero in midair. The two of them fall to the ground. You and Mercury close up ranks to block any avenue of retreat for the plush toy. Yuuno wasn't prepared for the opporunity to present itself this soon, but ever a trooper, he quickly calls out, "Chain Bind!"

A magical circle appears in front of Yuuno and four chains of magical energry shoot forth at the spot where the Clow Card had been moments before. The pink stuffed animal had jumped away once more, and Yuuno's chains continue forward and capture Sailor Mercury.

>>31256Two chains wrap around the bluenette's waist and cinch it even tighter. The other two chains each wrap around her upper thighs, lifting her blue miniskirt high enough to reveal a glimpse of her white leotard underneath. Mercury screams and pushes her skirt back down.

You chase after Jump, but trading altitude for velocity gives Sakura the speed advantage. She flies past you and reaches out to grab the stuffed animal. She's leaning dangerously far to the right, but you're too far away to help. You're about to call out to her to regain her balance, but she manages to get a hold of the Clow Card, and slows down for a landing.

You breath a sigh of relief too soon. The pink plush hits the ground, and jumps again. Sakura's grip is solid enough to hold onto it, but it yanks her free of her winged staff. The staff falls uselessly to the ground, and Sakura hangs on for dear life as she's pulled high into the air by the stuffed animal.

On the ground, you're powerless to do anything other than watch as the girl leaves the ground behind. Nanoha flies after her, and you watch to see what happens next.

>>31258At the apex of its jump, Jump uses Sakura's head as a springboard and jumps again, tearing itself free of Sakura's grasp, and causing Sakura to enter a freefall. The girl starts to panic, but soon calms down and reaches for her key. However, she realizes that she didn't put her staff away back to its key form, but rather left it behind on the ground, and she starts panicking again.

>>31259Fortunately for Sakura, Nanoha reaches her and matches speed with the falling girl. The two elementary school girls hug tightly in midair, and Nanoha slows their fall into a controlled glide.

While the duo is making its way to solid ground, Jump is also coming in for its landing. Yuuno once more steps up to the challenge and calls out, "Chain Bind times four!" Four magic circles in a diamond pattern appear in front of him and each of them shoots out four chains of magical energy in the general area of the falling Clow Card. What he couldn't do with precision, he manages to pull off through sheer quantity. One of the chains manages to hit the pink stuffed animal and wrap itself around it. However, a single chain is not enough to restrict the cards movements. As soon as the animated stuffed animal hits solid ground, it leaps again to the side, trying to break free.

>>31260Yuuno dissipates the fifteen chains that missed and focuses on keeping the one chain that connected latched onto the Clow Card. He's able to hold his ground, forcing the stuffed animal into a circular path around him. The plush's trajectory brings the chain up against a lamppost and Jump is jerked violently to the side on a new trajectory. Its momentum causes it to spin faster and faster around the pole until it hits the lamppost, and is knocked unconscious. It then slowly unravels until Jump comes to a rest on the ground.

>>31261Nanoha and Sakura land near Sakura's staff, and the girl picks it up. She runs over the unmoving stuffed animal and calls out, "Return to the form you originally came from, CLOW CARD!" She taps the beak of her staff against the stuffed animal, and like with illusion previously, a blank card appears in the air, and Jump is sucked into it.

The card falls into Sakura's hand and Kero flies over to her. "Well done, Sakura." He commends. The to look at the sealed Jump card and Kero comments, "This guy is aggressive, but also stupid.

Tomoyo lowers the camera and answers, "We have to return the plush toys back to Maki's shop."

The two of them look at the stuffed animals strewn in the park and clearly aren't eager for the task at hand.

"Don't worry," Nanoha chimes in. "We'll help you."

"Of course." Sailor Mercury adds.

What do you do?>Of course you'll help them out. Its an opportunity to talk to get to know everyone a little better.>Really you should check in on Sailor Moon and the Cures.>Your work here is done. Time to head home.>Write-in [what?]

I fucking knew before I even clicked it was gonna be Yackety Sax. Because of course it would.

>>31265I'm mildly torn on this one. The gentleman in me wants to agree to help and thus earn points with these three plus Tomoyo, whom we really should consider trying to make up with after the camera debacle as I'm pretty sure she's one of the "bonus" girls Moe mentioned at one point, but helping with the boring parts that happen after the battle is over kind of goes against Tuxedo Kamen's entire MO. Let's spin it as… having an odd feeling about how Sailor Moon is doing, and heading off to make sure they're okay. Not necessarily a lie, but it doesn't look quite so much like we're just ducking out of helping out like this.

>>31262That "whisper" concerns me. Have Tuxie express his regrets that he can't stay and help, but he needs to check on Sailor Moon and the Cures. Sakura, Tomoyo, and Nanoha are good-hearted kids; they could well understand the need to check on their comrades. And if Yuuno uses his chains to carry some of the animals, that'd make the task easier.

Not to mention, Sailor Mercury will naturally be concerned about her new friend Moon, so if she can't personally go, then Tuxie's the next best option.

While it would be nice to help Sailor Moon and the Cures, our magic is dangerously low. Helping with mundane tasks does just as much, if not more, to help us get closer to girls. And helping Mercury will indirectly help us with the other Sailor scouts.

Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't been around much recently. I found a link buried somewhere in this site that took me to a Discord channel for a preg-fetish themed tabletop RPG called Maiesta, so I've been kinda there recently.Anyway, I'm voting with Shadow's idea. Helping Mercury could help the Senshi indirectly. And Tuxedo Mask's whole shtick of being just barely helpful at only the most critical moment is…well, honestly, it's long gone. And I'm fine with that.

Your torn on whether to stick around and help the girls carry the plush toys back to Maki's shop, or go check on Sailor Moon. In the end, you decide that helping out Sailor Moon and the Cures is more important than helping the girls and possibly improving your standing with Tomoyo.

"Ladies." You announce, "I'll leave the cleanup to you. I'll check in on Sailor Moon and Cure White and Black, and see if they don't require assistance." Without giving them a chance to respond, you run off in the direction of the shopping center.

You reach the shopping center, but there's no sign of the girls. You look around for any clues as to their whereabouts, and your ears are assaulted by a painful scream that's cut off by a croaking sound. It came from behind the building, in the extended parking lot. Such an ear-piercing wail could only belong to Sailor Moon. Her scream fills you with urgency and you map out the fastest way to get to the back of the building. You get a running start, jump onto the metal housing of a trash can, leap towards an overhead lamp, grab it, swing up, and land on a crouch on top of it. Careful not to lose your balance, you jump onto the roof of the store and run to the back edge.

From your vantage point you have a clear view of the battlefield. A shared parking lot stretches from the back of this building, to the back of the next one. In the center of the parking lot is a large, bluish-purple, humanoid, iguana monster. She's holding the blonde heroine by the neck with her thick tail. Sailor Moon is struggling to free herself, unable to make a sound with the constriction around her neck.

Standing off against the monster are Cure Black and Cure White, the latter of which is still in her damaged outfit. You can only imagine that the monster has threatened to kill Sailor Moon if the girls move. That would at least explain why they aren't trying to fight the monster. Behind the Cures are the broken remains of a door; the back entrance to the pet shop you deduce. A group of people are peeking around the edges of the door frame to see the fight. One of the spectators has his flip phone open and pointed at the action.

What do you do?>Rose the monster and hope it lets go of Sailor Moon.>Jump down and sneak closer to the fight.>Try to scare the spectators away with a rose.>Write-in [what?]

>>31479So, looking back through canon, Sailor Moon more or less has this fight without us. Luna will give her the necessary advice to ace the youma from where she is right now and we won't really need to even do anything. If we attack the youma now, that changes and this fight gets a lot messier.

The audience isn't that big of a deal either, since we're still at the level of "magical girl incidents are urban legends" as far as general awareness of things. Having a couple people who are aware of this are annoying, and maybe we should figure out who it is that has that phone so we can smash it later, but for the current moment of the fight, they aren't worth worrying about. And honestly, if the person with the phone turns out to be Shingo, I'm gonna say fuck it let the kid have a recording of his big sis in action.

So I'm just gonna say prep a rose in case things start to turn sour but otherwise continue observing from the overwatch point we've got right now. If Sailor Moon REALLY needs help we can jump in and fucking annihilate that monster, but for now we're better off staying back and letting Moon gain some levels on her own.

>>31479Rose the phone and startle the spectators into running. For one, they'll be safer if they "de-ass the area with a quickness," as an explosives expert on "MythBusters" so eloquently put it.

For another, I wouldn't wanna take the chance that someone was getting panty photos of Sailor Moon if she were my prospective lady, and I don't think Tuxie would be too keen on that idea either. When it comes to this game, he could well be taking the Dark Schneider approach: His ladies are HIS, and he doesn't share easily.

>>31495And now we should make dropping Megadeth on someone as our new goal in life.

I'm not necessarily against clearing the crowd out, but it worked out a little for Usagi and her brother that they talked after the battle in canon, which might not happen if we scare everyone off. And we can always keep track of who has the phone and jump them later.

All this talk about Bastard! got me to download the show yesterday. Skimmed through the first three episodes. I like what I see so far. I need to watch this at some point with all of that spare time that I don't have.

Every instinct tells you to leap in and help the girl, but a coldly rational part of your mind tells you to stay put. Sailor Moon will never live up to her full potential if you always save her bacon. She needs to win this by herself and gain the confidence that she needs to face the challenges that you are sure will face her in the future. Nonetheless, you still stealthily drop to the ground, and sneak sneak closer to the action, ready to jump in when and if the situation worsens.

A voice from the darkness calls out and almost scares you out of your hiding spot behind the row of cars, "That youma's weak point is at the base of its tail!" You stick your head up and look around find the source of the voice. You spot Luna standing on the roof of a car. Tricky cat was blending in in the darkness.

Sailor Moon struggles to grab her tiara and she limply flings it at the base of the lizard's tail. The glowing and spinning tiara embeds itself in the monster's tail, but doesn't cut through completely. Still, the monster drops Sailor Moon and howls in pain. The blonde girl hits the pavement hard, and Cures White and Black spring into action.

Together they shout, "PreCure Marble Screw!" The two girls are struck by color coded lighting during the first part of the chant, and then they fire a black and white spiral beam of death at the lizard creature. It shouts in agony and then turns to dust from the magical blast.

>>31560Sailor Moon doesn't appear to be moving, and her tiara is sticking out of the pile of dust which is all that remains of the youma. The Cures give each other a high five, and White sees the onlookers. The bluenette remembers the tattered state of her clothes and tries to hide behind Cure Black. Most of the onlookers stay behind the door frame, but one of them dashes forward, a younger kid with light brown hair and a pad of paper and a pen in his hand. He calls out, "Sailor V! Sailor V!"

>>31561You grumble at the mention of Sailor V. She had foiled several of your earlier attempts at robbing jewelry stores, which is why you're now in the habit of scanning for the Silver Crystal as soon as you enter a jewelry store instead of grabbing the jewels to sort through later.

What do you do now?>Keep watching.>Take your leave since no one has seen you.>Sailor Moon needs heals, heal her.>Cure White needs some cover, give her the cape again.>Intercept the kid and send him back to the store.>Scare away the onlookers>Rope Cure Black into helping.[do what?]>Write-in. [what?]>Mix and match.

>>31562Hoo boy. We should've asked Mercury to come with us. She could provide some cover for a getaway. [facepalms]

Well, shikata ga nai. Motion to Cure Black to follow your lead, stand in front of Moon and White with Black to somewhat preserve their modesty, and do something to scare off the onlookers. Maybe say there may be other youma around, and it's best if everyone clears out. If they don't comply, throw a La Smoking Bomber onto the street to create a flash-bang effect and get 'em gone. That's my vote.

>>31567That's what I thought. Alright, let's fuck up that phone while the girls are distracted and clear out the crowd. Either tossing a rose at it as we approach or just jumping in and breaking the thing with our hands before holding up the crowd and telling them "The Show's Over"

>>31563>>31584>>31603Only three replies, and all of them slightly different, but I hope I've blended the votes satisfactorily.

Taking stock of the situation you know what you need to do. Cure White's modesty must be preserved, that cell phone must be destroyed, and all the onlookers need to be scared away. With that settled, you jump out from behind the row of cars into the central lane. In the air, you unfasten the left button of your cape, and once you land, you sprint towards the girls while undoing the right button as well.

The brown haired boy points at you and yells, "Watch out!"

Sailor Moon stirs, and both Cures turn around to see what the boy is pointing at. "Tuxedo Kame-" Cure White starts to call out, upon seeing you, but you interrupt her by throwing your cape at her as you leap over Sailor Moon's prone body.

You land next to Cure Black and quickly order, "Help me block the view." While she gets next to you to form a wall and keep Cure White and Sailor Moon out of sight of the onlookers, you pull out a rose and throw it at the offending cell phone pointed in your direction. With your target stationary, it's an easy hit and you smile in satisfaction as the flip phone breaks into several pieces. The heads all disappear back behind the door frame. "Everyone get out of here!" You bellow in a commanding tone. "It's not safe. There might still be more monsters. Everyone go home, now!"

The boy is frozen in place, but finally gathers the courage to speak up. "Sailor V! Can I get your autograph?" His knees are trembling, and he's looking at you, clearly intimidated by your towering presence. "I'm a huge fan!"

"She's not Sailor V." You inform the kid. "Now go ho-"

"I'm not Sailor V! I'm Sailor Moon!" The blonde girl proclaims angrily. Being chocked by an iguana monster's tail hasn't managed to cause any problems with her voice at least.

"Well, you're cute too." He blurts out, before even realizing what he said. For a moment, you think he might run away, but he continues, "So, can I please have your autograph?"

"Hey!" Cure Black interrupts. "Aren't I cute too?"

"Of course you are Miss!" He replies, his resolve clearly reaching its limits. Mumbling he adds, "But she's blonde."

You have to hand it to the kid. He may be young, but he knows what he wants.

Cure Black quietly grumbles, "Hmph. Why is it that only girls notice me?"

You hear your cape rustling behind you, but you don't turn around to investigate. While you have to admire the kids courage, it's time for you to send him away.

"I have to ask you to do something, Shingo." Sailor Moon states from the ground behind you.

"Huh? How do you know my name?"

"I know everything. I want you to be nice to a cat near you named Luna. That black cat is certain to lead you to happiness."

"OK! Anything you ask!"

Double checking that no one is still looking at you from the back door of the store, you step up to Shingo and turn him around. "Sailor Moon needs to recover from her fight. Get going. Maybe you'll get an autograph next time if you're good to that cat."

With fears assuaged he waves back to Sailor Moon. "Bye Sailor Moon. I'll get your autograph next time!"

You watch him leave and breathe a sigh of relief. At the same time, you notice something missing. In the hallway behind the broken door, the scattered pieces of the flip phone are gone. It's owner must have scooped them up while running away. With nothing you can do about it right now, you turn back to face Sailor Moon.

Cure Black is to your left, a frown still on her face. Cure White is in front of her, fidgeting under you black cape. Sailor Moon is still on the ground, but she's spread her arms wide, her eyes are open, and she sighs. You notice that her pink choker is gone, as is the blue sailor collar. Her shoulder pieces are frayed, but otherwise intact.

What do you do?>Take your leave. [Take the cape back or leave it]>Tease/flirt/joke with Cure Black about what she said that only girls notice her. [Positive tone, or negative tone. Any specific lines?]>Help Cure White with the cape. [Give her the fastening chain, put it on for her. Do you say anything to her about there being other people that saw her in her state of undress?]>See if Sailor Moon is OK or needs healing, help her up.>Anything you want to say to any of the girls or Luna? [what]>Do you rope them in to help carry the stuffed animals back?>write-in [what?]

Help Sailor Moon up (who is clearly looking for it), and give Black a positive comment (either along the lines of how we like the attention of girls, and/or how we like looking at a girl that is cute and kick ass) I could use help with that line though… I call upon my fellow horsemen!

>>31727Partial mix of the two votes here. The line Shadow is looking for is "I notice you."

We don't want to say anything TOO romantic or flirty at the moment because everyone's attention is on us, and thus everything we do is going to affect the four girls present (Luna's here too, don't forget) and their perceptions of us, whether we have the God Text from the Telltale Batman game to tell us so or not. So we have to break it down ourselves.

Moon's already having jealousy issues and being too forward with any of the other girls in her presence before she learns to share will just make things more difficult for us in the longer run. But at the same time, giving Black some positive hints that she's wrong about not being noticed, or at least that we notice her ourselves, is definitely the right move. And we also have to be somewhat careful to balance White as well, as focusing on one Cure over the other, even though we definitely have more points with Honoka at the moment, would cause us to lose some of those points with the one we don't pay attention to and fuck that nonsense. I'm going for a harem route here, not some bullshit focus only on one girl at a time playthrough.

So we compromise a little. Give Nagisa that line, then before she has time to start blushing or otherwise reacting, turn to Honoka and give her a quick pointer on how to fasten the cape. Don't do it for her, or we'll spend long enough on it that Usagi will start to get jealous and probably stand up on her own, which will cost us with her. So once we talk to both Cures, turn and help Sailor Moon up because she most definitely wants us to help with that. And while we're at it, we should tell Luna good job on spotting the youma's weakpoint. None of the support team aside from Yuuno really like us right now and we need to try and start working on fixing that, and I say start with the kitty that's right in front of us.

Ideally, I'd like us to end up having one-on-one time with basically everyone we need to work up points with. The support crowd are perfect examples of this, Luna especially, in that the best way for us to end up changing their general opinions of us to a more favorable light is to end up alone with them for some reason during an episode and let them see for themselves that we're not a bad guy, we're just… not doing things the same way they are.

Also, I don't think we should try and get them to help with the stuffed animals. Maybe mention that everything seemed okay when we left everyone in the park, but trying to rope them into helping at this stage just feels like a jerk thing for us to do, given these three are probably the most exhausted at this point.

And besides, we'd be expected to help as well, and as I've previously noted in the past, helping with the mundane stuff at this stage of the game goes wildly against Kamen's current personality and MO. While we as the players agree that "The Crystal is my only concern" is a flawed mentality and we've discarded it, in character he does still prioritize finding the crystal and his memories as his main motivation for a lot of things, as evidenced by that little Sailor V memory flash. And while we ourselves care what happens to any of these girls and want to jump in to help when they get in over their heads, a good chunk of his motivation for doing so beyond player agency is because he wants to knock up some magical girls. That's a mentality that hasn't shifted very far from our first night on the job, and it's not going to do so for probably a good while. Once he's started to reach the point where he focuses more on helping the girls out than fulfilling his own agenda, even if he doesn't openly realize his own shift in mentality, we can be a nicer guy overtly and do stuff like help with stuffed animals or, I dunno, do shit like study group with the Senshi or something. And there's always a good chance that said mentality will involve Mamoru, and where our attitude will start to fall once the two of them stop being these two segmented fragments of a psyche bouncing back and forth and start being a coherent mind and personality.

tl;dr version of all this, Tell Black "I notice you.", Tell White how to fasten the cape on her, Help Moon to her feet, Tell Luna she did a great job, and Don't try and talk them into going to help with the park.

>>31734I'll back this too, but I'd like to make an exception and have Tuxie ask if anyone has any energy left, and if they'd be willing to help with the plushie cleanup. We need ways to get the gals to bond, even if it's over tedious tasks, so they'll get along and be more willing to share Tuxie in the future.

>>31773Ah, you guys knew I was due for another long rambling introspective. And besides, a short line is always better than a long sentence.

>>31765Once Moe stops opening the Kamen segments by mentioning the voice telling us to find the Crystal, I'll believe our priorities have shifted. Until then, I still see all the meddling he does as our doing rather than his own.

>>31727>So many girls, so many hearts to juggle.If it's too many, I can always lock some girls out of the running. But that would be a dick move, even for me.

>>31734>I'm going for a harem route here, not some bullshit focus only on one girl at a time playthrough.You damn well better be. A. I'm not running this game enough times for you to unlock a harem route in the way you would in a VN (finish every girl's story on separate playthroughs.) B. If you weren't I'd have to go find a new set of players.

Also, I see you're back in the groove of things and getting everyone to go with your idea.

Offhandedly you comment to Cure Black, "Don't worry, it's not JUST girls that have noticed you." While she's trying to process what you just said, you pull out the chain that you've been using to secure the the cape from your pocket. Stepping past the surprised ginger heroine, you hand her bluenette partner the gold chain and advise, "You might want to clip this on to free your hands."

>>31823Cure White is holding both ends of your cape with her hands, and accepting the gold chain from you causes her to open the cape and reveal her damaged uniform. You can see her breathing quicken by her chest rising and falling faster. She opens her mouth, you assume to thank you, but quickly bites her lower lip and not a sound escapes her. You drop the chain in her outstretched hand and give her a knowing wink. "You've seen me put it on, so you know where it goes."

>>31824With Luna and the other girls this close to you, you dare not look down and take a peek at the goods that Cure White is showing off, but you nonetheless appreciate her gesture. You turn around to face Sailor Moon. The blonde girl still hasn't made any action to stand up, and she has a dreamy, spaced-out, look on her face. You lower yourself, almost taking a knee, and hold out your right hand to the girl. "Sailor Moon, could I offer you a hand up?"

The blonde heroine jumps as her thoughts are yanked back to the present. "I, um, yes?" She places her right hand in yours.

With a firm grip on her hand, you stand up, pulling her up along with you. You don't need to look around you to know that Luna is most certainly glaring at you. So, without shifting your gaze away from Sailor Moon, you call out, "Oh, and Luna, good job finding the youma's weak-point. This would have been a much harder fight otherwise."

The black cat tries to 'harumph', but it comes out as more of a squeak. "I only did it to help Sailor Moon."

Sailor Moon turns around and beams at Luna, "Thank you, Luna."

"Ahh, you're welcome." She replies, flustered, "But you need to be more aware of your surroundings. I won't always be able to help you like that. You'll need to learn to fight on your own."

Sailor Moon frowns, "But now we have Ami, and Tuxedo Kamen, and everyone else, so I won't have to fight alone."

What do you do/say?>Chime in in Sailor Moon's defense, she's still new to this.>Agree with Luna, being part of a team means that everyone has to carry their own weight, and not depend on others.>Take your leave.>Sneak off with one/both of the Cures. [which one and how?]>Write-in [what?]

>>31825Agree with Luna, but tactfully. Also remind Moon that her teammates might not always be with her, so she needs to respectfully listen to Luna's lessons about how to become an effective fighter. Then add something like "And then soon, you'll be doing the rescuing." (Maybe that should be said in a way that implies Tuxie likes strong, resourceful women?)

>>31845Fem's got the right idea for what I was going for, both in the way of doing it and how to provide the motivation.

Usagi's biggest flaw as a character, especially during the early stages, is that she's not so much lazy but unmotivated. If it's something she wants, she'll go to outlandish lengths to get it, but if it's something she doesn't care about, good fucking luck getting her to pay attention for longer than a few minutes.

Luna's problem is that she's pretty much the walking embodiment of all the stress and seriousness of the situation she's in as the mentor figure for the Senshi and their mission to find the princess, recover the Crystal, and beat the Dark Kingdom… a sitution that Usagi just does not fucking care about unless it's right in front of her at the time. As a result, her attempts to make Usagi get with the program usually result in a lot of yelling that gets blown off in record time and just causes bad vibes all around. She has the right idea, but her teaching methods don't work because the student in question is unmotivated to learn and she's too stubborn to figure out ways around that, at least in the early stages. They start to gel together more as time goes on, but for the first little while, it's rough going.

For all the bitching, however, Luna's right about things a good 90% of the time, especially in matters of a more general nature beyond the scheme of the week. Usagi does need to get her butt in gear whether she realizes it or not, but unfortunately for the kitty, she's not the one who can teach her that lesson.

We, however, have her wrapped around our finger. Remember that thing about Usagi and motivation? WE are her motivation. Forget sleeping with her whenever we wanted, we could probably talk her into jumping off a bridge if we smiled and said we'd catch her when she fell. In canon, Kamen generally never used this beyond the occasional sentence or three of a pep talk (sometimes ineffectively) but since we're smarter than canon, we can turn this around in our favor. So if she's gonna soak up every word we say, let's start building her up. Starting with the error she just made that we really do need to correct.

I'm just gonna freewheel here a bit with this, so don't mind me if it's a bit over the top. We might not even get a full sentence out before someone else interrupts. I assume she'll try and chirp in a little between line breaks, but given her personality, I don't expect the objections to amount to much.

—

"Actually, Luna's right. Sailor Moon, were Sailor Mercury or I able to aid you in that battle just now? Or Cure White or Cure Black?"

"No, we were not. I only arrived at the very end of the battle. Had Luna not told you where to aim, that youma would've killed you long before I or anyone else could have come to your aid. What would have happened had Luna not seen the monster's weakpoint? What would you have done then?"

"We are able to help you, that's true, but you must still be able to defend yourself if another situation like this arises. If you get caught by an enemy with no one else around to help you, the only one who will be able to save you is yourself. If you're not ready for that, you're going to get killed."

"So take Luna's advice, and learn to fight on your own. You need to get stronger, for the sake not only of protecting yourself, but for protecting everyone else as well. A team is only as strong as their weakest member. How would you feel if you were constantly being held back by a teammate who didn't pull their own weight in battle?"

"You have it in you to become much stronger than you are right now, you just need to reach that potential. I certainly believe you can. Who knows? You might even become good enough to pull me out of a tight spot some time. Heaven knows I've found myself in enough of them, so wouldn't that be something? I know I would certainly be grateful if that were to happen."

(I threw that part in just to give her a little fantasy to latch on to. Motivation!)

"So do your best to become stronger, and listen to Luna's advice on the matter. She clearly knows what she's doing. Isn't that right, Luna?"

>>31883Well, a little ego stroking does no harm. Did you study psychology? Because you nailed the breakdowns of the characters and how to motivate them really well. Not to mention that backing up Luna will help us out in the long run.